The Heathman Hotel Kirkland — Hotel in Kirkland

My overall grade for Heathman Hotel Kirkland is: D+

I spent almost an entire work week here attending meetings in the lower level conference rooms.

I checked in late night Monday at approximately 11:00 PM. My colleagues were mostly there with one other coming later.

I asked if there was a hotel bar, the nice person behind the counter said, yes and pointed towards a dark area of the hotel. I was expecting to meet my colleagues and grab a nightcap. But alas, I was informed that the hotel bar closes at 9:00 PM. Wow. I’ve never stayed at a hotel that had a bar, that closes at a time that is earlier than I go to bed. No bueno Heathman.

Being a hotel and COVID being over, I thought to ask, does housekeeping come everyday? No. Unless requested. I do so request. I’m sorry, but the one thing that really separates a hotel from AirBnB is daily housekeeping. For customers to have to request a service that in my opinion, is as standard as silverware being provided by restaurants, this is disappointing.

The room: A

Great room. Desk, mini fridge (nothing in it, maybe a couple bottles of water would be nice), and a pot for heating water. Bathroom & shower are great. View is nice.

The only odd thing about the room: It has a door to join the next room over. The hotel had something plugged in inside my room and ran the cord under the adjoining door into the next room. Very strange. Housekeeping: A

Nice people doing a great job. I prefer to leave a small tip for such great service.

In room dining: D-

In room dining at some hotels is 24 hours. Fine, this hotel hours for that is 7:00 AM. I’m an early riser (6:00 AM)

At 7:05 I call room service and ordered a pot of coffee so that I can begin my day at my desk and start to be productive. The nice person who took my order said: ok, give me a few minutes.

A few minutes later, a knock at my door. Yay. The person had a tray with 4 paper cups on a tray. I said: I ordered a pot of coffee. The pot keeps the coffee hot while I work.

The person said: we cannot allow carafes with hot beverages due to liability. Hmm, I’ve traveled all over the world and this is the first time I’ve ever heard such nonsense. Also, no bueno.

No smoking sign on the desk: No smoking.

Ok. Makes complete sense. However, there is a balcony and the sign goes on to say: if you smoke, even outside on your balcony, you will be charged a $250 cleaning fee for each time. Ok, let me get this straight, how would the hotel even know that someone had been on the balcony or someone had been smoking on the balcony?? If there were cigarette butts left, sure, charge a fee, but what if people smoke pipes or vape or cigars. Really?

Conference rooms: A

Technical capabilities & plugs were all satisfactory. Menus for breakfast and lunch were provided. Very good service and the food was fine. More than fine.

All in all, if I were having business meetings all week, I would go elsewhere to a facility that has a bar that’s opened past my kid’s bedtime. And somewhere (everywhere else) that can give me a pot of coffee in my room in the morning.

If that doesn’t matter, this is...

A few things about our stay.

-- I called 06/19, 06/20 and 06/26 to verify the pet charges and ask other questions about amenities. All three of those calls, I made sure to verify additional expenses beyond the cost of the room and was told it would only be the $30 total charge for our 2 dogs. I spoke to Jessica, Arrisa and Wayne those 3 calls. -- We booked a 4 night stay via Costco travel on 06/20. We could have canceled for a full refund by 06/30. -- Upon checking on on 07/02 with Brandon, we were told they had to have a card on file for incidentals but did not say total amount. On 07/03, I overheard Willow checking in a guest and verbally told the guest about the $100/night incidental hold. This was the first I heard of it. Admittedly, I did not scour their website as I booked through Costco but figured 3 calls with questions directly to additional fees, I didn't have to scour the website. Thus, we have a $400 hold on our funds that we cannot use on our vacation. -- In 07/04, I directly talked to Brandon about why I was not told verbally about the incidental charges. In short, Brandon said, "I am so sorry, I'll be more clear in the future. I've never had an issue before." What Brandon doesn't know is the impact of that statement is, "everyone is rich that stays here except you." -- We were raised as a cash only family. I was also raised poor. My wife and I saved up for a LONG time for this vacation which turned out to be miserable. Every modest thing we had planned for the weekend we could no longer do. While $400 isn't the biggest deal to the average person, we were really proud of how we saved up for this vacation. -- The entire experience was hurtful, disrespectful, and inconsiderate. We thought we were doing "right" by calling, asking questions, and being thorough. I'll own I didn't scour their website but I'm older and prefer direct interactions as we have been misinformed via websites before. -- Brandon did call us to offer a cheese plate to celebrate our special occasion. I didn't want a cheese plate, I wanted our $400 so we could proceed with our scheduled vacation as we planned it. -- We have never stayed at a 4 star hotel before. And, based on this experience, we won't again.

Hotel wise. -- No microwaves in the units -- No easily accessible ice; staff has to get it. -- The sliding door to the bathroom made noises that woke me whenever my spouse got up to use the restroom. -- The garbage trucks in the back woke me. -- The Nespresso pods are generic and not recyclable

All in all We won't be back. We regret saving and spending our money at this hotel. It's been awhile since we have been treated so poorly. And, we never got our food voucher as offered in our...

I had booked one night at this hotel (Saturday, July 22nd) well in advance via Hotwire and received a confirmation email confirming my reservation on July 1st. I was coming to town for the Mariners games on the Saturday and Sunday, and lo and behold, Taylor Swift was in town both nights and hotels got booked up and the city was packed. On Saturday, July 22nd, a few hours before I was due to check-in, and while I was at T-Mobile Park for the baseball game, I got an email saying the hotel was overbooked and no longer had a room for me. Hotwire, nor I, was able to find any rooms in or near Seattle (we even tried places like Leavenworth... several hours to the east, and trucker motels along the highway). Hotwire was willing to cover the additional cost of any 4 star hotel I could find in Seattle, but there were none. I ended up having to drive to Portland, Oregon, to have a safe place to sleep that night, and then drive back on Sunday morning to catch Sunday's ball game. We had to skip our Saturday night and Sunday morning plans, and spend 5+ additional hours in a car plus gas $ to have a place to sleep that night. Funnily enough, our Saturday night plans were dinner reservations at this hotel for their "Bourbon & BBQ patio pop-up". I thought surely this was an issue with Hotwire, but turns out the hotel also informed Hotwire day-of, that they were no longer going to have room for us. So, I would have loved to stay at this hotel and save all that time and money, along with dining in their restaurants, but it seems as though perhaps they prefer to re-sell rooms knowing they can get more $ closer to the date. I'd love to hear how this happened and why it was acceptable to leave people with nowhere to sleep with just a few hours notice, knowing the city/state was all booked up for that...